Fiction Episode! This episode contains spoilers. In the novel Sparkling Cyanide, a young heiress dies unexpectedly from cyanide poisoning during a birthday dinner. Although the official verdict of an inquest is suicide brought on by depression after influenza, her husband and sister have their doubts. There are many suspects, all of whom could possibly have had it in for her, but determining who the murderer is, or even if there is a murderer, is difficult. Sources and...

Fiction Episode! This episode contains spoilers. In the novel Sparkling Cyanide, a young heiress dies unexpectedly from cyanide poisoning during a birthday dinner. Although the official verdict of an inquest is suicide brought on by depression after influenza, her husband and sister have their doubts. There are many suspects, all of whom could possibly have had it in for her, but determining who the murderer is, or even if there is a murderer, is difficult. Sources and...

Florence Bravo was a wealthy widow before she married Charles Bravo, a barrister in the 1860s and 70s in Victorian England who was angry that she wouldn’t share her inheritance with him. When Charles died, there were multiple people in his household who were suspects, because so many of them had a beef with him. This story was referred to in several Agatha Christie novels: Ordeal by Innocence, Elephants Can Remember, and The Clocks. This is Part Two, if you haven't listened to Part One, I...

Florence Bravo was a wealthy widow before she married Charles Bravo, a barrister in the 1860s and 70s in Victorian England who was angry that she wouldn’t share her inheritance with him. When Charles died, there were multiple people in his household who were suspects, because so many of them had a beef with him. This story was referred to in several Agatha Christie novels: Ordeal by Innocence, Elephants Can Remember, and The Clocks. So sorry to leave you hanging, but don’t worry…part two...

Dr. William Palmer was a physician in the mid-1800s in England who was a little too fond of gambling. So fond, in fact, that he was willing to kill multiple relatives for the life insurance payouts he took out on them, sometimes without their knowledge. He is famous for Palmer’s Act, the law that later prevented someone from taking out life insurance on someone unless they could show they would suffer a financial loss if that person died. Show Notes: Sources and resources: Wikipedia The...

On April 28, 1908, in La Porte, Indiana, Belle Gunness’s house burned to the ground and four bodies were found inside, one of them headless. The victims were allegedly Belle Gunness and her three children. Was this a terrible accident, murder, or a faked death? What was subsequently found on the farm would give some answers but also generate more questions. Sources and resources: Wikipedia "United States Census, 1900", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MS78-PBL :...

At 2am on March 23, 1857, Emile L'Angelier came back to his boarding house in a terrible state, complaining of stomach pain. His landlady helped him inside and to bed. She was worried about him because he had had these symptoms off and on for the past few months. Later that morning he died, and letters from a wealthy young socialite were found in his room. Was this murder? Sources and resources: Wikipedia The Elements of Murder by John Emsley The Madeleine Smith Story, by Douglas...

From September 1914 to January 1915, seventeen residents of a nursing home for the elderly in New York died. During the investigation Frederick Mors confessed to murdering at least eight of them, claiming he had put them out of their misery. Was it all his idea, or was he bullied into it by management? Sources and resources: Wikipedia The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, by Deborah Blum. Penguin Books, 2011. Serial Killer Calendar:...

Episode 8 – Iron Mike Malloy Iron Mike Malloy was given unlimited access to drinks in a bar in New York City in the 1930s. But the reason behind this generosity was not as friendly and generous as it sounds, and hid a more despicable purpose. If you would like to suggest topics for the show, you can send them to [email protected]. Sources and resources: Michael Malloy - the Irishman in The Bronx that could not be murdered, Irish Central, 14 Dec 2022....

William Taylor was a farmer who died in excruciating pain from what was thought to be tetanus. Was it actually strychnine poisoning, and was his wife Virginia the culprit? Sources and resources: “The Strychnine Exhumation” by Raychelle Burks, Chemistry World, 22 April 2017, Royal Society of Chemistry, https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/the-strychnine-exhumation/3007131.article Richmond Dispatch, December 27,1888, https://eshore.iath.virginia.edu/node/4866 Richmond Dispatch, March...

Mary Ann Cotton was one of the most prolific poisoners in British history. Over the course of about 20 years she murdered between 16 and 20 people, all of them close to her, before she was found out and stopped. Show Notes: Sources and resources: The Elements of Murder by John Emsley Wikipedia https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Ann-Cotton Mary Ann Cotton: Britain’s First Female Serial Killer by David Wilson “The baby born to Mary Ann Cotton in Durham Jail,” The Northern...

Christiana Edmunds was a woman who poisoned or attempted to poison multiple people using strychnine added to chocolates. Was her behavior due to jealousy of her crush’s wife or just a love of mayhem? This story has some similarities to the Tylenol poisonings of the 1980s. Sources and resources: Wikipedia Francisco, S-V; Reina, G. The chemistry of Marchand’s test for strychnine identification,...

James Maybrick died on May 11, 1889 after showing signs of poisoning for weeks. Did his young wife poison him or did he just take too many "medicines?" And was he actually Jack the Ripper? This month I have my first guest (future co-host?) on the show, John. Sources and Resources: Full text of the Maybrick case: a treatise on the facts of the case, and of the proceedings in connection with the charge, trial, conviction, and present imprisonment of Florence Elizabeth Maybrick....

Mary Harker Bateman, aka the Yorkshire Witch was a petty criminal and fortune teller in the late 18th and early 19th century. But eventually she moved into murder as well. Sources: Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents and Strange Events/Mary Bateman, Witch and Murderess by Sabine Baring-Gould, pp 401-424. Knotmagick101.wordpress.com The Elements of Murder by John Emsley NIH.gov: Balali-Mood M, et al, Toxic Mechanisms of Five Heavy Metals: Mercury, Lead, Chromium, Cadmium, and Arsenic. Front...